Seventeen
by terraNOVELLA
Summary: At that the stranger descended and slowly came into the light. First it was a pair of tall bright red boots, then a black and blue survival suit, black fingerless gauntlets, a long red cape; but Damian didn't notice any of that, not right away. What he saw was the insignia, the "S" enclosed inside a diamond shaped shield...


"TT" Damian remarked as he pulled a pair of binoculars down from his eyes. This was going to be too easy.

Run The Batman out of town and you think you've got it made. Or that was the thought. There was a new order in Gotham City. Bane was in control, the Dark Knight was missing and Gotham's worst of the worst were literally patrolling the streets. The inmates were running the asylum.

But for all of their bluster, for all of their show, they were unsurprisingly overconfident.

Damian once again checked out his target in the distance; one of the city's many zeppelins that patrolled the skies. The boy wonder hadn't snuck into the city to disrupt its captors hold, not yet anyway; he was there on reconnaissance. The unmanned airships belonged to police force and provided an aerial view of the city below. That would be all he would need; the villains "patrol" routes, their numbers, who they were...what they were. When it was time to take Gotham back he intended for there to be no surprises.

The boy checked his surroundings one last time to make sure there were no eyes on him before taking out his grappling gun. He took aim at the next building over and started making his way across the gothic skyline. The zeppelins flew unusually low so as to get the clearest view possible of the city, so if you had the nerve it was possible to hitch a ride. And well...Damian Wayne had the nerve. Little did he know though there were eyes on him...they were just halfway across the city...

* * *

Jonathan Kent watched as his best friend made a running start, took aim with his grappler and fired it with perfect precision; swinging from one skyscraper to the next hundreds of feet off the ground all with out an ounce to fear. All of Damian's vitals were at baseline; he might as well have been taking a leisurely stroll.

A smile formed on his face; it had been six years since Jon had set eyes on his friend. Six long years since he'd seen him, but absolutely nothing had changed. Whereas all that time had passed for the Son of Superman, the Son of the Bat had only experienced four weeks. And as usual Damian was in the one place he shouldn't have been.

Gotham City was on lockdown just like Metropolis. The criminal element had risen up, closed off the borders, and was holding every citizen hostage. But unlike Metropolis that now had two Kryptonians looking out for it, Gotham City's Bat Family had scattered and run to ground.

No one had seen The Dark Knight since his failure in preventing Bane's rise to power. Nightwing had survived a murder attempt but at the cost of his memory. Batgirl as well as Red Robin were missing and Red Hood...well Red Hood was a wild card. There was no telling where the anti-hero stood.

Jon knew full well Damian was aware he shouldn't be in the city alone but there wasn't exactly anyone around to tell him otherwise. Not that he would listen even if there had. But just by his movements Jon could tell his pal was here to gather intel, not to bash some baddies, so he would most likely be alright.

As he floated in place he thought back to the reason he was even there. To what? Present himself to his friend? ... What do you call it when you're coming to see your best bud after you've aged six years but from his perspective it'll seem as if it happened in the span of thirty days? Yeah...

The Kryptonian hybrid had chosen to do it in person. This wasn't something you texted to tell, or even called to say on the phone. Though...choosing to do it in person always carried the risk of giving your loved one a heart attack, but what other choice did he have? And even finding Damian to tell him had been no simple matter; the boy was a ghost. It had taken Jon five days to track him down.

He hadn't been in Gotham during Bane's takeover so that made it a matter of finding him by searching every one of Batman's hideouts and bunkers. That was a lot; even for Jon. He'd finally found him in a building owned by a shell company or subsidiary that was in turn owned by Wayne Enterprises; and it would seem as if Damian had a new team. What exactly had happened in the "three weeks" he'd been gone? And why was that one kid blue?

Since Jon wasn't in the mood to meet four people he didn't know he decided to wait for Damian to take off on his own; as he had the bad habit to do. And it was just his fortune that Damian snuck out that night.

Now that he was this close to him though Jon began to feel slightly panicked. The teen couldn't help but think about what his parent's reaction had been. His father had been shocked and angry; his mom heartbroken. And things...things were just awkward at home. It was as if his parents didn't know how to talk to him half the time. It was odd; Jon had believed the worst thing he could have ever experienced was being imprisoned and abused by and evil doppelgänger of his father and almost killed by an evil doppelgänger of his mother. But this thing with his actual parents? It was worse...

Lois and Clark were trying though. It was just...hard.

So how would Damian react? Jon didn't have a clue. Damian wasn't one for showing much emotion outside of perpetual annoyance. And the fourteen-year-old was already annoyed with him; he'd found that out.

The first place Jon searched had been the Fortress of Attitude. Damian hadn't been there but Jon still checked the place out for clues and the nostalgia. He even looked for their old (to him) comms. If push came to shove and Damian had his he would use them as a last resort. It would give everything away though. Jon's voice had changed too much for Damian not to know something was up. But in the end it didn't matter. Jon found Damian's comms on the table in the common room; the communication device was neatly housed in its case and holding down a perfectly folded piece of paper. Jon picked up the note and chuckled once he read it:

_"So...You're an a**. Honestly I would actually be impressed if I weren't so ticked off. Anyway, maybe you'll finally hone those Kryptonian powers of yours being amoung your own. You're going to need them when you get back; I have every intention of exploiting you."_

Obviously Damian was referring to Jon having not told him goodbye before he left. It had seemed like such a small thing back then. Jon was supposed to have been back before Damian would even have a chance to really miss him. And technically he was; according to the days on the calendar, but not in reality, and he knew that. Jon tossed the letter back on the table only then noticing that there was a another page. It would seem Damian had some second thoughts.

_"Okay; that was...rude, but I meant every word and I don't apologize. ...Look, Jon I understand why you felt like you had to leave. I just wish you didn't feel you needed a tour of the galaxy to answer life's big questions, or to understand yourself. You're ten. Strike that, you're eleven, you've had your next birthday. Point is, it's not a big deal that you don't have those answers or if you don't understand yourself sometimes; but I hope by the time read this you've found what you were looking for. Otherwise your summer vacation is going to be a complete bust. From what I hear your alien grandfather isn't much of a social butterfly, not like his grandson._

_Hakka, Your pal, D_

_PS. Tell anyone I actually call you "pal" and you're dead. I know where where my father keeps the kryptonite."_

...Well that totally didn't make him feel worse. Damian was going to kill him.

Jon took in a deep breath and held it before letting it out, allowing his mind to return to the present. However his friend was going to react there was only one way to find out.

* * *

As Damian landed on his last rooftop before making his final jump to the zeppelin he took just one more look behind him; he saw no one but he could swear he was being watched.

Shrugging it off he made his way onto the airship quickly finding what he was looking for; the onboard computer system. He smirked, completing his task would take less time than it took to get here; all he needed to do was download the camera feed from the last 72 hours and plant his mirror virus, that way he'd be aware of any new activity or any dissension between the criminal elements.

Within minutes he was done; just like he'd thought. All. To. Easy.

Damian was just about to make his exit when a voice broke the silence; "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but you know this is the LAST place you're supposed to be right?"

The fifth Robin whirled around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, slinging a batarang in the direction from which it came. But maybe unfamiliar was the wrong word. There was something about it that he recognized...but it was buried almost; as if it had a couple octaves layered over it.

Looking up he caught sight of a figure floating in midair, shrouded in shadow. Whoever it was they'd caught his batarang with ridiculous ease. "And you still 'shoot first and ask questions later'. Glad to know the memory holds up."

"Memory?" Damian asked, "Am I supposed to know you?"

At that the stranger descended and slowly came into the light. First it was a pair of tall bright red boots, then a black and blue survival suit, black fingerless gauntlets, a long red cape; but Damian didn't notice any of that, not right away. What he saw was the insignia, the "S" enclosed inside a diamond shaped shield.

"Well I would hope so. I mean I am your pal."

Jon smiled as he kneeled down and pulled his dumbfounded friend into a hug and held him there, "I've missed you buddy." After a moment or two he let go; finding that while Damian's dazed expression was gone it had been replaced by a blank and unreadable one. He didn't say a single word in response. He was shell-shocked.

This wasn't what Jon had expected. He'd prepared himself for a reaction of some type, any type, but it never occurred to him that there could be a lack of one. As Jon stood back up; Damian's eyes followed him, taking everything in.

Jon looked years older and he had to be a good eight inches taller. His voice had changed. He towered over him. What had happened to his friend? What had Jor-El done? Thrown him into some crazy maturation chamber?

"D?" Jon asked, but his friend didn't answer. He sighed, "Not exactly the way I wanted to make my second first impression."

"W-wha-" Damian started to say but that was it; all he could manage.

A sly smile came across the young Kryptonian's face and he turned to look around the airship; they were most likely on borrowed time. This was no place to stick around.

"Come on bud, let's get you out of here." Jon said as he flew over, picking up Damian as he had so many times before and took off for Metropolis.

Along the way Jon recounted his whole misadventure; everything that had happened to him: Jor-El showing up unannounced, his grandfather's crisis, the seemingly never ending space conflicts, their encounter with the blackhole, his subsequent imprisonment on Earth-3 by the Crime Syndicate, even Rogol Zarr. By the time the two made it to the roof of Jon's apartment building Damian was fully caught up, but he was still silent. Memories crashed through head. When Jon set him down he just walked away to roof's edge; stared out at the city. Jon hung back. They stood there for what seemed like forever.

"D?" Jon asked once again.

Damian sighed, "I heard you the first time Jon," he said finally answering. "I haven't gone spontaneously deaf."

"Then can you please just talk to me?" Jon implored. "I know you're surprised, and I know I'm...different," he said looking down at himself. "Did I mess up? It's just; this isn't something you text. A phone call would be terrible. How do you warn somebody? I figured showing up in person was the lesser evil. Look, D, I don't care what you say, but don't shut me out."

"Only you. Something like this would only happen to you."

Okay, maybe he should care. The words were like a punch to gut.

"Six years are just...gone; that's not nothing. You're seventeen. You're three- You just passed me by."

"And I'm still your best friend. Look, Damian I know this is weird, that's not lost on me. But I did come looking for you. After Jor-El got me off Earth-3 you were the first person I thought of after my parents. I'm still me I swear. ... You can see that right?"

At that Damian turned around and gave Jon another look over. Past the age, past the new hight, past everything that was different and concentrated on the things that weren't. The way he talked, the way he stood, the genuine earnestness in his eyes, even his nauseating wholesomeness.

"You know it's going to take time for all of that to play out right? For us to really be able to see it?"

Jon's heart dropped to his stomach as an expression of panic flashed across his face.

Damian's sighed when he saw it. "Jon it's not the end of world; I'm just being honest. But you're right; you are still you. Different; but you."

"You're actually convinced? You don't feel the need to test me?"

Damian rolled his eyes. "Kent, I've come to learn you have this special brand of nauseating wholesomeness. You practically ooze with it. There isn't a clone, shapeshifter, or imposter out there that could pull it off . Besides if on the offhand chance you somehow were I'd bring upon you the wrath of a thousand burning suns."

Jon beamed, walking over he ruffled Damian's hair, it surprised him just how easily his hand reached the top of his head; no effort. "I don't doubt it. Thanks...squirt."

Damian grabbed Jon's hand and promptly removed it.

"Too soon?" Jon asked.

"Too far." Damian replied. "But even I have to admit that puberty's been good to you." The boy poked at the young Kryptonians abs and biceps. "You didn't have to work for any of these did you?"

"Seriously?" Jon asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Well you're the one who so aptly pointed out our new hight difference. You're abs are literally right in my face, kinda hard to ignore."

"Awww... Don't worry buddy. You'll grow too. Someday."

Damian gaped, "Thin. Ice. ... So; now what?"

And as if on cue to add some humor to the situation Jon's stomach growled. It was so loud both boys could feel the vibration through the soles of their boots.

"Was that-"

Jon chuckled sheepishly.

Unbelievable; his friend now had stomach growls that mimicked seismic activity.

"Wow. Hungry much?"

"You have no idea. These days I'm never not hungry. If you thought I was a bottomless pit before you should see me now. I can give any speedster a run for their money."

Damian grimaced; he'd seen Flash eat. "That's gross."

"Believe me I'm well aware. I literally disgust myself...and my folks. My dad says he went through the same thing but there's quite a difference between going through it yourself and watching someone else."

Damian smiled a bit. When I came to Jon's abilities he typically didn't have much pity for him; felt Jon didn't have a reason to complain. But now? In this case? Well...he felt a little empathy.

"Think of it as a trade off then," he offered, "You're stomach may be a black hole but that's where all those muscles are coming from. You can't have one without the other."

"True," Jon admitted, "But it doesn't make it any less mortifying. So what do you say? Want to get something to eat? You can watch me get kicked out of a restaurant."

"I have to say the prospect has me morbidly curious. But it's not comic-con weekend; I don't have a change of clothes."

"You act as if that's a problem that's not easily fixed. Just give me a second." Jon said as he super sped them both into the Kent's home. Once inside he continued to blur around; so fast he was nothing but a blue and red streak. When he finally stopped not only had he changed clothes but Damian had his own set in his arms. "The sooner we get back to our normal the sooner this can stop being weird."

Damian scoffed. "Hate to break it to you Jon but this is never not going to be weird."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Jon retorted, "I seem to recall you saying 'never' about a lot of things that ended up happening. Us never becoming friends being among them." He pointed down the hall, "Change."

Damian opened his mouth to object but changed his mind and walked off in a huff.

After he was gone a third voice chimed.

"See there? I told you everything was going to be okay. And you were worried." It was Lois; she stood up from a chair that had hidden her and walked over to her son. "So how was it? How'd he take it?"

"About as well as can be expected. But you know Damian. It's not as if he ever lets you know everything he's thinking. It'll be okay though, I'm not letting him off the hook. Where's dad?" Jon asked as he looked around noticing his father wasn't there.

"Downtown. The invisible mafia isn't being so invisible tonight. If you want the rest of the night to be cape free I'd suggest you avoid it." Lois smiled as she pushed some of Jon's hair behind his ear and stroked his cheek, "You know, I've said it about a hundred times since you've been back but I'm so proud of you. And look at you now, getting your life back."

It was a nice mother/son moment. Until it was interrupted.

"Well now isn't this sweet? I wouldn't have pegged it but you're just as saccharine as your husband aren't you?" Lois and Jon looked around to find Damian leaning against the wall.

"Damian." Lois acknowledged.

"Mrs. K."

The mother tiled her head as she gave the boy a once over. "Nice to see Jon's old clothes still fit. You just turned fourteen right?"

"Mom!" Jon exclaimed chocking out a laugh.

Lois took both boys by the shoulder and led them out of the apartment. "I give just as good as I get it. The saccharine comes and goes." She then gave Damian a wink, "Have fun."

* * *

"I knew there was a reason I always liked that woman." Damian said once she shut the door. "But as long as we're on the topic of age there is one thing I'd like to say."

"And what's that?" Jon asked as the two started to walk to the elevator.

"No matter what happens now; I was still born first."

Jon smiled, "And what? That means you're still older? You know that's not how relative time works right?"

"And what would you know about relativity?"

"Besides the fact that I lived it? Remember when I told you I got a lot of reading done on Jor-El's ship? Now take into account that I can speed read."

"So you're telling me that you're not a seventeen-year-old with a fifth grade education?"

Jon smirked, "You'd like that wouldn't you? But no. Quiz me on anything you'd like. I guarantee I'd pass."

"27,543 divided by 32."

"860.71875. The Kryptonian calculator brain kicked in too. I was- I was fourteen, a little older than you."

"I hate this." Damian remarked as the two arrived at the elevator. It was then that he found himself gobsmacked. There in mirrored surface of the doors was their reflection. A visual testament to their new dynamic.

Before Damian had been the older one, the smarter one, the one with the confidence and experience to spare; Jon on the other hand was the naive newbie, the boy who needed his hand held. But now? Now Jon was no longer that wide-eyed tag-along. His odyssey had seen to that. And in that moment it became very clear to Damian that he had two choices. He could either adapt and go along for the ride, or he could resist and be dragged kicking and screaming.

He laughed then. First it was a snicker, then a titter, and finally genuine, honest, maybe a little bit crazed, laughter. How on Earth could his life have turned on it's head so quickly?

Jon smiled when he heard it; looking at their reflection too, but there was a certain level of bittersweetness to it. The two of them had lost something, something very special; irreplaceable.

Time.

As confident as he was, as was trying to be, he acknowledged it; there was no denying or getting around it. However they were gaining something else. Something that eventually would be viewed as just as precious.

A new adventure.


End file.
